The Heidenheim Heidekoepfe have tied the German Baseball-Bundesliga Finals against the Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg. They shut out Regensburg on Friday 4-0 and crushed them 12-2 on Saturday to even the best-of-five set at 2-2. Game five will be played on Saturday at 2pm in Regensburg. Legionaere TV will broadcast live at www.sportdeutschland.tv/baseball.
Under the lights on Friday evening Heidenheim won 4-0 behind a strong performance of Peter Sikaras. The right-hander had rolled his ankle at practice on Thursday, but still was able to stifle the strong Regensburg offense en route to a complete game shutout. He allowed just four hits and three walks, while striking out nine. Mike Bolsenbroek took the loss with his biggest mistake being a fastball to Shawn Larry, who sent it over the right field fence for a two-run home run in the second.
On Saturday the Buchbinder Legionaere quickly jumped out with a 2-0 lead against Tyler Lockwood. However Heidenheim countered with three runs in the bottom half of the first and continued to score at will in the next seven innings for a 12-2 blowout. Larry hit another two-run home run. He and Simon Guehring combined for six RBI. James McOwen had a big game-tying two-run single in the first and scored three runs overall.
Regensburg had won games one and two 4-3 and 5-4, both times through walk-off hits. A sellout crowd is expected at the Armin-Wolf-Arena on Saturday for game five.
Photo by Gregor Eisenhuth, www.eisenhuth-photographie.de